Emittance conservation by tailored focusing profiles in a plasma accelerator

Abstract

Laser-plasma accelerators, providing high electric field gradients, are promising candidates to drive next-generation compact light sources and high-energy applications. However, conservation of beam emittance, a prerequisite for future applications, is very challenging, as the accelerated beam has to be matched to the plasma’s strong focusing forces. Here we derive with simulations ideal laser and plasma density profiles to match an electron beam in and out of a plasma stage, thus relaxing required beta functions for injection and minimizing divergence and emittance growth after the plasma.